Process of manufacturing hopped beverages.



.Illinois, have invented a new and useful ,ROBEBT-WAI-IL, OF CHICAGO,ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR BY ME SNZE ASSIGNMENTS, TO

LUPULYTIG vPaoonss ILLINOIS.

N0. Drawing.

T all'u hom it may concern: I

-Be it known that I, RoBnRT-VVAHL, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and StateI of mprovement inProcesses of Manufacturing Hopped Beverages, of which the following is aspecification. g

The valuable 'constitutents of hops for hopping beverages, such as beer,are those which impart thereto a bitter taste, coming from the bitterprinciple in the hops, and lend to the beverage its characteristic hopflavor. This bitter principle resides in the hop resins, now usuallytermed hop-bitter acids in the technical literature relating to hops;and these acids are of importance,'besides in checking the growth offoreign fermentation in beer and are, therefore, of value in stabilizingthe beverage.

The object of my invention is to provide an improved process ofextracting these hopbitter acids, thereby to cause their extremelyminute. division in colloidal form when added to the wort or beer in thecourse of manufacturing the latter.

As is known in the art, the aforesaid constituents of hops are largelyinsoluble in water, while they dissolve readilyin such solvents asether, petroleum ether and alcohol, as also in water solutions ofcaustic alkalis and alkaline carbonates; and by employing either ofthese forms of alkali to produce a solution of the aforesaid valuableconstituents of hops, theirpractically complete precipitation isefiected by acidifying the solution. It is further made known in UnitedStates Letters Patent No. 97 8,4176, dated December 13,1910, to ArvidNilson for a hop-extraction process, that hop-resins or hop-bitter acidsmay be extracted by means of ammonia and the bitter principleprecipitated by acidification, and that the precipitate, consistingalmost entirely of these resinous constituents of the hops, with only asmall percentage of albumen, may be employed in the same manner thatlupulin is used in brewery practice, namely by simply adding it to thewort. I have discovered that by dissolving the hop-bitter acids or thelupulin of hops with caustic soda, or some other alkali, thi hop-bitterprinciple will be thrown out of its solution in a colloidal form, orvery finely divided state, and re Specification of Letters Patent.

COMPANY, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, -.A C0R1?ORA'I.ION OF PROCESS OFMANUFACTURING HOPPED"BEVERAGES.

Patented A11 10, 1915'.

.App1icationfi1edSeptember 3, 1914. Seria1 N0.860,075.

main, .for all practical purposes, permanently inisuch colloidal. state,if the solution be introducedinto a liquid containing acid in verydilute. form and the volume of such llqllld'be large compared with thequantity of, the hop-bitter acid so introduced, by the acid-content ofthe. liquid neutralizing the alkali. On the other hand, if the volumeofthe acid-containing liquid, in which neutralization of the acid takesplace, be relatively small, the hop-bitter acids, or hop-resins, beingof a sticky nature, will cause what is knownas pectization(flocculation) with ac companying separation from the liquid holding thefine suspension or gel. Conditions favorable to causing such ultra finedistribution of alkalisdissolved hop-bitter acids through the medium ofadilute acid liquid exist in brewers wort in which there is sufficientacidity combined with sufficient volume to effect such neutralizationand resultant fine division, which is comparable to the division ordistribution of fat globules in milk, or in an emulsion, or'to thedistribution of particles like silicic acid in a hydrosol or an alcosol.The 7 result is analogous to that which -is-obtained:in the case ofsilicic acid by adding an alkali-solution of it (produced with asmall'quantity of alkali) to a watery solution of hydrochloric acid,when this solution is of-suflicient volume. The fine distribution of thehop-resin throughout wort maybe best effected while the wort is boilingin thehop kettle, the natural lactic acid and acid phosphates containedin the wort, serving to neutralize the. alkali which is combined withthe hop-bitter acids and thereby throwing them out in a condition ofextremely. minute division I to uniformly and quickly ditribute themthrough the wort.

It is,preferred to use only that part of "the hops, for dissolving inthe caustic alkali solution, which is obtained by mechanical separationof. the disintegrated hop+cones, .byscreenmg from the stems and coneleaves.

tieles of hopleaves which have been disintcgratedby the tearing actionof the separator. Ordinarily, the amount of crude lupulin thus obtainedis about 10 to 15 pounds from 100 pounds of hops; and about 1 to 2pounds of caustic soda are required to dissolve that quantity oflupulin. The process of dissolving this lupulin with caustic soda, sodaash, or other caustic alkali, may be practised in a simple receptacleset above the hop-kettle. Into this receptacle are introduced for, say,a 100-barrel brew, about 10 lbs. of the crude lupulin together withabout 20 gallons of hot water or spargingsand about 2 lbs. of thecaustic substance dissolved in water; the solution being kept at atemperature of about 180 F. The mixture is then thoroughly stirred, andis allowed to stand for'about one hour, when the extraction will becompleted. The con tents of the receptacle are thereupon emptied. intothe hop-kettle at the proper time, say from 5 to 15 minutes before thewort is to be run out; or they may be run into the hopjack. In thismanner, the hop resins, or that portion which was separated from thehops, and hereinbefore called crude lupulin, are practically allextracted and there is no loss of lupulin, as there is under presentusual brewery practices, whereby most of the hop resin is admittedlylost.

here no hop separator is available, the entire hops may be used forextraction, though that is not so desirable, since then a largerquantity of the caustic alkali must be used and the hops, to thoroughlyextract them, must be placed in a separate extractor equipped withstirring apparatus and the entire contents of such extractor emptiedinto the kettle at the proper time.

By the improved process, thus described, a saving of fully 15 per cent.of the amount of hops ordinarily employed in the manufacture of beer iseifected, and'the resulting beer is in every way at least equal inquality to that brewed with the larger quantity of hops. In one brewerythe brew was carried out, according to the present process, through 14successive working days, each brew consisting of 390 barrels employing170 lbs. of hops, prepared as herein described, as against 205 lbs. ofhops employed in the regular way. Moreover, as is well Copies of thispatent may be obtained for known, spent hops taken from the hop-jack,when extracted with ether, yield considerable quantities of hop resin,while when the hops have been treated according to the present process,the spent hops contain only traces of hop resin.

It is to be understood as within my inventi on to add the causticsolution of hop-bitter acids to the beer during or after fermentation,which produces advantages about equally as great as adding the same tothe wort.

- WVhat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. Inthe manufacture of hopped beverages, the process of distributing the hopbitter acids in colloidal form throughout the acid-containing liquidunder treatment, which consists in treating the hops with a causticalkali solution, thereby dissolving and extracting the hop-bitter acids,adding the hops in the solution used for their extraction to saidliquid, and causing the acid of the latter to neutralize the alkali.

2. In the manufacture of hopped beverages, the process of distributingthe hopbitter acids in colloidal form throughout the acid-containingliquid under treatment, which consists in treating the hops with adilute solution of caustic alkali at a temperature of about 180 Fthereby dissolving and extracting the hop-bitter acids, adding the hopsin the solution used for their extraction to said liquid, and causingthe acid of the latter to neutralize the alkali.

3. In the manufacture of beer, the process which consists in preparing adilute solution of caustic soda, mixing therewith hops in theproportion, by weight, of 1 part of the hops to about 20 parts, as themaximum, of the solution and maintaining the solu tion at a temperatureof about 180 until the hop-bitter acids have been thoroughly.

dissolved and extracted, then introducing into the wort the hops in thesolution used for their extraction, thereby distributing said hop-bitteracids in a colloidal form throughout the wort and neutralizing by theacid of the latter the alkali in the solution.

' ROBERT \VAHL. In presence of- A. C. FIscI-IER, L. HEIsLAn.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington,D. G.

